Vegetarian to Vegan: One Small (uh…) Step

I have been a not-incredibly-strict vegetarian since May 2013. Here and there I would have a bite of a chicken wing or, more specifically, dandan noodles from my favorite Chinese restaurant which included small bits of beef (I’d try to eat around the beef, but there was no way to be sure to avoid the meat). Once I cut out meat, for the most part, I realized that I was eating significantly more eggs (especially once I had to revise my go-to Wawa sandwich to egg salad).

Since I’ve been at Lafayette, I have attended two lectures that explained the extreme harm that meat production has on the environment and have become much more strict about my meat intake. For this project, I have decided to be even more strict and go completely vegan (good-bye Wawa egg salad…) to further lessen my carbon footprint. The “Global Footprint Calculator” determined that, as a vegetarian, it would take 5.6 earths to sustain everyone if they lived like me. I went back and edited my diet to exclude all animal products and it lessened my amount of earth by .2 to 5.4 earths. Although this result is still embarrassing, it’s  also an improvement! I’ve chosen to go vegan because it is a lifestyle choice that I want to continue past this semester for my own and the earth’s health.

I anticipate that there will be two major roadblocks in my quest to eat no animal products: eggs and cheese. I’ve been able to cut down my cheese eating since I’ve been in college, but eggs are definitely a staple in my diet that I will need to replace. I will definitely need to increase the amount of food that I eat, since everything that I’m cutting out is fairly high calorie. I will have to make it a habit to grab a lot of fruit from upper or lower and make sure that I eat throughout the day.

Although my grandmother’s oyster stuffing at thanksgiving dinner may challenge my will-power, I am determined to not consume any animal products and decrease my carbon footprint!